Edinburgh Union Society of Journeymen Bookbinders

Photocopies of Minutes, 1822-61; correspondence 1814-1922.

The Edinburgh Union of Journeymen Bookbinders started life in 1814 in the same manner as the Bookbinders' Consolidated Union as a relief fund called the Society of Bookbinders in Edinburgh. This became the Edinburgh Union of Journeymen Bookbinders in 1822. Along with London, Edinburgh decided not to join the Bookbinders' Consolidated Union and remained independent despite recurring amalgamation talks and a Bookbinders' Consolidated Union branch being opened in Edinburgh in 1846. However, a trade dispute in the early 1870s weakened the Edinburgh Union of Journeymen Bookbinders and as a result of this and the growing realisation that national agreements were beginning to prevail, the Edinburgh Union and the newly retitled Bookbinders and Machine Rulers' Conslidated Union decided to amalgamate with effect from September 1872.

Reference: C.J. Bundock, The Story of the National Union of Printing, Bookbinding and Paper Workers (Oxford, 1959)

This collection is available to researchers by appointment at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. See http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/using/

Link to full catalogue: http://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/EJB

The originals of the photocopies held at the Modern Records Centre are located at the National Library of Scotland.

The records of the Edinburgh Union Society of Journeymen Bookbinders were deposited along with those of the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades on the 12th August 1994.